


Dragonflies, Dates, and Garbage

by PolyPairings



Series: The Arbiter, The Medic, and Inter-Species Relationships [4]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Arbiter x Reader, Elites | Sangheili - Freeform, Gender-neutral Reader, Hugging swans, I don't know how a ship AI communicates with crewmembers, I swear that's relevant, It's gonna get a little deep, No Beta - We Die Like Badasses, Other, Thel 'Vadam x Reader, also fluffy, i love fluff so much, sassy Roland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25565017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PolyPairings/pseuds/PolyPairings
Summary: It's what y'all have been waiting for, the first date! I already have the next one in works, just a basic outline right now though. This is absolutely a guesstimate of how people interact on a date. I'd love to hear your feedback!
Relationships: Thel 'Vadam | The Arbiter/Reader
Series: The Arbiter, The Medic, and Inter-Species Relationships [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1615108
Comments: 15
Kudos: 46





	Dragonflies, Dates, and Garbage

**Author's Note:**

> **Trigger/content warning** for the use of the word wh*re. It's in the first all-caps section of Peters' tirade, so skip it if you need to. Keep yourselves safe, loves.

_Saturday, July 17, 2556_

The walk to each other's quarters took longer than you thought it would. It turns out that the Sangheili quarters are pretty far away from the Humans', and it makes sense. A space would've needed to be renovated to accommodate to their needs, and racist (speciest?) Humans most likely would have bugged them had they been nearer. The walk is somewhat unnerving, as you get looks from people you pass in hallways. No doubt the rumor mill will be going strong. When you get to your room, Arbiter is let inside to see it at his request, though he has to duck under the door to get in. It's small and grey, and you can tell he finds it underwhelming. Usually marines share bunks and quarters, even on a ship this size, but as an officer you get your own. He is fascinated by your few nick-knacks, and the pops of color you've added.

The walk to his quarters are spent with you answering his questions about how Humans sleep, what kinds of surfaces and conditions they can sleep in, how the UNSC houses others soldiers, etc. He seems skeptical of the idea that some humans can fall asleep standing up, or others with their eyes open.

The Sangheili quarters are very different from the regular Human quarters. Everything's taller and larger, kinda like Spartan Town. It's brighter, too, and very warm. Your clothes stick to your skin somewhat, so you can tell the humidity is at a pretty high level. There's a lounge that you can see at the end of the hall you're in, and there's several Sangheili, some dressed in the thin lounge-robes, some in tunics and pants, and some in partial armor. They chatter, eat, and work on their extra-large datapads, but subtly observe your presence with curiosity. The wait for the Arbiter to change clothing is only about 5 minutes, but it feels longer with their lingering gazes. Thankfully, Khova had noticed your discomfort a few minutes in, and had stepped in between you and the lounge to shield you from their view. He was rewarded with a very grateful smile and your calming down a bit.

When the Arbiter returns, you can't help but to ogle him a bit. His bloody tunic and pants have been replaced with a rather nice lounge-robe. Now that you think about it, his tunic and pants had seemed nicer too, before he had been slightly blown up while wearing them. You also made an effort to dress nicer this morning, but there was only so much you could do. As a worker in a military medbay, there's a very high chance of getting blood or some other bodily fluid on your clothing. As a doctor, you’re allowed to wear your own clothes under a white coat, but you usually wear scrubs. Today, you’re wearing some regulation pants with your work shoes and a nicer shirt. You’d left your white coat in your room.

"Shall we?" The Arbiter offers an arm to you to take. You have to have your arm higher than it would be normally, if you were linking arms with a human, but you take it.

"Let's go," you say with smile. You have to lead the way, since you're the only one who knows the way to the memorial park.

You catch more people looking at you on the way to the elevators, and you can tell that there'll definitely be gossip about this. The fact that you're on a date with the Arbiter rather than just seeming cozy with him probably won't be evident until people see you in the memorial park together. By tomorrow, probably the whole ship will know of your date through the power of scuttlebutt*. Unless by some miracle everyone you will and have come across will be too dense to realize it's a date and just think it's a tour. Right.

You're not ashamed of possibly dating the Arbiter by any means, you're just a bit concerned of how the more...passionate people will treat you. You get a lot of different people through the medbay, and there is a disturbing amount of (literally) raging racists that may try to harm you. You can take them, probably, but they'd be a chore to deal with.

The doors of the elevator ding and you realize you've been in your head a bit. You feel a bit awkward that you've traveled all the way from the Sangheili quarters to the memorial garden in silence. It doesn't seem like the Arbiter minds, though. Nor do N'thito and Khova. They're all staring out on the park in different levels of awe. You'd purposefully chosen to come down this way for the view. The viewing deck of the memorial park is several levels above the it, high enough to see all it has to offer. There's tables and chairs on it with people lounging, and even more staring at you all. You'll also have to go down another elevator to get to the park proper, but it was worth both cons for the pro of showing them this view.

"Welcome to the UNSC _Infinity_ Memorial Park," you say with a little flourish and a grin. "What do you think?" You make sure to look at all of them so N'thito and Khova know you're asking their opinion too.

"There's so much vegetation," N'thito mutters. As he is younger than both Khova and the Arbiter, it makes sense that he would be more awed.

Khova looks amused at N'thito before looking to you to answer. "It reminds me of my Keep, on the edge of the 'Kraralum Woods."

"You're one of the lucky ones that gets to live out of the desert, then?" Since there's three suns in the Sangheili's star system, a majority of Sangheili live in the desert. Khova bows his head in affirmation.

You go to the Arbiter, who has left your side to look over the railing and get a closer look at the park. He seems a bit less tense, and you know you've picked the right place for your first date.

"Well? Do you like it?" You put a hand over one of his, where it sits on the railing, hoping it isn't too forward. He covers it with his other hand, so it must have been okay.

"Yes," he says softly as he leans over to make eye contact. "I saw some of this, on Earth, but I was fighting the Covenant, and then the Flood." He keeps his eyes on yours, waiting to see your reaction. Maybe he's worried you'll react poorly to his involvement with the Covenant. You just give him a sympathetic smile.

"I understand. I was in New Mombasa myself, that day." It had been terrible, moreso than usual. You'd been there since earlier in the day, and didn't leave until the glassing started. Soldiers that were both trained in medicine and able to fight were very valuable to the UNSC. You were sent to an evacuation site, and tended to wounded civilians and and soldiers and marines, defending it from the Covenant when you could. Until it was overrun by the Covenant, and you'd managed to escape on a Pelican and get to a different evac site. You'd kept doing that, until later in the day, up on a skyscraper helipad. With its height, you could see far. Far enough to see the crashed Flood ship. It was close enough for you to hear their screams and guttural calls on the wind. You were evacuated less than an hour after that, and escaped being glassed by the skin of your teeth. You didn't go through to Installation 00, though. There were so many wounded already, and your skills as a medic were needed more than your skills as a soldier.

You blink out of the thousand-yard-stare you didn't realize you'd adopted at the slight squeeze of the Arbiter's hand atop yours. This time it's his gaze that's understanding. N'thito and Khova have moved to flank you both while you were dissociating, and they politely pretend they didn't notice.

"Tell me what those domes are?" He asks, as he turns back to the view.

You zero in onto them. "Those are the activity domes. There's a bar in the one on the far left, nearest the garden plots. Next to that there's a galley, a gym, and the one on the far right has an arcade." You point to them with your free hand.

"Garden plots?" He looks at the gridded ground near the bar dome. "Do you grow enough food to sustain the _Infinity_?"

"Not currently, but we could expand it enough if we need to, and we have enough seeds to do so," you say after you shake your head. "The _Infinity_ was originally designed to house the remnants of Humanity for an extended period of time if we lost the war."

There's a brief, awkward silence after that. Which is to be expected when you're talking to a person who almost helped make that situation a reality. The Arbiter breaks it.

"Can you show me the garden plots?" You're relieved that he didn't take that wrong. You're so comfortable with him that you didn’t even think to censor your speech.

"Of course." He lifts his hand for you to free yours, and offers you his arm again. You take it without hesitation.

You lead him and his guards over to the translucent elevator, ignoring the eyes on you all. You enjoy watching their reactions to the view going down, as you move through the trees to the ground.

There's a comfortable silence as you walk to the garden plots. Neither of you talk while you enjoy seeing the flora around you. Arbiter breaks it every once and a while to ask you about things. He seems to particularly enjoy the pops of color in the endless green from flowers and bugs. He's never seen a ladybug before, and seems surprised that they are not immediately killed or eaten by other creatures with its bright coloring. When you get to the garden plots, you start pointing out the different crops and some of their uses.

Tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, corn; there's a good variety of crops in the garden, and even more in storage. As you near the activity domes, you wonder if the Arbiter would like to visit the bar, Full Moon. It couldn't hurt to ask.

"Would you like to see the bar? It's called Full Moon," you said as you neared it.

"It is where alcoholic beverages are served, yes?" When you nodded in response, he replied, "I would like to see it. My people have alcohol, but it was reserved for celebration of battles or births."

You hum and look thoughtful. "Humans drink it for that, too, but mainly to loosen up and have fun. It's a part of a recreational activity, usually with friends. Some people drink it to forget their sorrows and disappointments, though. And some people drink it because they're addicted." The conversation is put on hold as you walk into a room full of noise. Right. You forgot there'd be War Games today. People usually flock to bars and lounges when War Games are broadcast, like one would for any other sport.

As you step into the bar, you notice that most people are watching the screens and holograms and cheering. Some do notice the Arbiter, but they don’t make a big deal apart from whispering to their neighbors or staring. Most just shrug to themselves and go back to watching the Games. Fireteam Crimson versus Fireteam Domino. If you were a betting person, your money would be on Fireteam Crimson, despite how many times they crack datapads by using them with their gauntlets on, as Shaun tells you.

While N'thito and Khova scan the room for threats, the Arbiter has his eyes on the War Games. He seems a bit confused as to what they are, but appreciative of the Spartans' prowess. As you go to explain to him what exactly the War Games were and why they were streamed for the whole ship to view, you don’t notice a familiar figure near the doors you entered through. He notices you, though. As the Arbiter and his guards move closer to some of the screens to get a better view, you move towards the War Games broadcast program pamphlet in a plastic container near the doors. His path intercepts yours on the way back to the Arbiter, and he blocks your way.

"Hel-lo, Senior," Peters spits with a sarcastic tone. "Come to grace us with your disgraceful presence?" He gestures with his arms, sloshing the drink he was holding. His words are slurred, too. Drunk.

"Excuse me?" You try to convey just how annoyed you were with his presence in hopes that he’d wisen up and leave you alone. No dice.

"Yeah, excuuuse you." He's speaking loudly, and making large, unsteady gestures. He was starting to gain the attention of the people around you. "What excuses do you have for flouncing around and cozying up to a fuckin' genocidal squid-head?"

Your face darkens immediately. "Stop speaking now and I'll only write you up for insubordination, you're drunk. Keep talking and I'll add hate speech to that list."

"It's not hate speech if it's the fuckin' truth!" He's speaking very loudly now, and drawing the attention of even more people. It must be loud enough for Sangheili hearing, because you see Arbiter notice the situation and start moving towards you. You lift a hand to signal for him not to get involved. It'll only aggravate the situation, and a Sangheili threatening a Human in any way, even in the defense of another, might inflame some people's anger. While this occurs, Peters is cursing under his breath and swaying side-to-side.

"They have changed," you state calmly and firmly. "They help us even now to eradicate the remnants of the Cov-"

"They **are** the Covenant!" His drink drops and shatters on the floor as he raises his hands above his head. Heads whip towards you, yet no one steps in. They know that that would only escalate the situation.

"Peters-"

"NO! THEY ARE GENOCIDAL BASTARDS, AND YOU'RE FUCKING WHORING YOURSELF OUT TO THEIR LEADER! YOU'RE DISGRACING EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT DIED AT THEIR HANDS, YOU'RE A TRAITOR TO HUMANITY ITSELF!"

Your hands are clenched tight at your side. Vaguely, you realize that a good third of the bar is quiet and listening to this, but his shouts are covered up by the noise from further in. You take a deep breath in, then let it out to control your anger. Your teeth are clenched and you're fighting to keep yourself from snarling.

"WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF, HUH? ANYTHING? HOW CAN YOU JUSTIFY SPITTING ON THE GRAVES OF 23 BILLION PEOPLE?!"

He steps towards you surprisingly quick for a drunkard, hands reaching towards you. You can't tell if they're heading for your shoulders or neck, and you don't care. You swipe his hands down, and give him a hard shove to the chest while sweeping one of his feet out from underneath him. He stumbles back, and falls ass-first into a trash can.

" _You will shut your mouth and listen to me, right now_ ," you spit. Your tone is cold and threatening, and your face has slipped into a partial snarl, baring your teeth at him. Peters is stunned into silence. You have never seemed this threatening before in the medbay. Most people think you're a non-combatant, a doctor only. They don't know you've been a soldier for years. They don't know that you would've been classified a CQC specialist if you hadn't already had a degree in medicine. You take another breath to calm yourself.

"My entire family was glassed on Skopje in 2547. Every. Single. _One. Of. them._ My friends, my pets, my home. All gone. You do not get to stand here and accuse me of spitting on their graves. You do not get to speak of all the people who died at the Covenant's hands, some of whom I failed to save," you say, quietly but firmly, with shadows in your voice.

"The Covenant right now? It's full of brothers, fathers, friends of those loyal to us. And the Swords are fighting their own kin, partly for our sake. If that, on top of the fact that they helped us save the entire fucking galaxy from destruction two times doesn't convince you they've changed, nothing will." You motion Arbiter and his guards towards you, and they choose to listen.

You lead them out with your head held high, but go lean on the outside of the dome as soon as you're outside. You slouch down, and put your hands over your face for a second. Arbiter motions to N'thito and Khova, and they stand protectively nearby. He leans down and lightly puts his hand on your shoulder. You flinch for a second, but relax, and he lets his hand sit more solidly when you don't push him away. You drag your hands down your face and exhale harshly through your mouth, your eyes closed.

"Would you like to retreat from this location?" He looks worried, and there's another look on his face that you can't place.

You nod, and offer him a tired smile. "Yeah," you exhale.

You stand up straight, take his offered arm again, and lead him on a trail through the trees. You bring him to a clearing containing a bench and a koi pond bubbling in front of it, with a good view of the fluffy white clouds simulated on the blue sky dome. The bench, like pretty much every other piece of public furniture on the _Infinity_ , is capable of fitting a Spartan in Mjolnir, so it has no problem holding Arbiter. You sit, and he follows, watching the fish in the pond.

"It's called a koi pond. It's for aesthetic purposes only, though I suppose we could eat the fish if we had to," you explain idly. You pull out your data pad from your pocket. "Do you mind waiting a minute? I need to send in a report of...that," you jerk your head in the vague direction of the bar.

At the Arbiter's assent, you pull up a direct message to Roland. Normally you'd be filling out an incident report and sending it to Military Conduct and possibly the Military Police, but you figured with all those witnesses, someone had to have sent one in.

**YOU:** Are you aware of the incident that occurred at the Full Moon bar between myself and Junior Medical Officer Peters?

 **ROLAND:** I am aware, and have already sent video and audio recordings to the proper channels. Peters will be removed by the MP and sent to the brig. You will be receiving a message within the next few days containing the time and date of your incident debriefing. Enjoy your date.

 **YOU:** Thank you, Roland. You're the best.

 **ROLAND:** :D

You huff a small laugh. Some people don't realize just how human-like Smart AIs are, but you have. Roland is quite the personality. For those who treat him like a normal person, he doesn't hold back on the sass. Or the favors. Normally, you'd have to report to incident debriefing right away if you were off-duty and on your free time. Roland probably used the UNSC’s investment in this date to get you the extension. You'd have to take more pictures for him of things he can't see from the spaceship or internet on your next leave as repayment.

You put your data pad away and watch the fish with the Arbiter in silence for a while. His face is pensive, solemn, and his hands are held in his lap. You can tell he wants to say something, but decide to wait until he figures out what exactly he wants to say. You brush a hand against his and leave it there when he accepts your touch, in silent support. He finally speaks up.

"That Peters was not entirely wrong, (Y/N)."

That was not what you were expecting. At all.

"My kind has committed many atrocities against yours. Stood by and let many more be inflicted by the rest of the Covenant. I myself have take billions of Human lives. It was my fleet that glassed Reach, your bastion of military strength," he says. He is watching your hand on his, waiting to see if you'll remove it from his like his words burn. You do not. Instead, you give it a gentle squeeze.

"Why are you telling me this?" Your voice is soft, non-judgmental.

"I do not want to mislead you in any way. If you wish to part ways and never see me again, I will respect you decision," he says, eyes still on your hand.

You wait a second, then snort in amusement. That unexpected action gets him to look at you, to meet your eyes.

"I knew this when I first saw you, Arbiter. Besides, you are not the only one who has killed," you acknowledge with a wry smile. "I work solely in the medbay now, but during the Great War, I was a soldier first and a medic second. I killed thousands of Covenant members, including Sangheili. Hell, if you want to count the kills of those whom I saved from death, I've killed hundreds of thousands."

You turn your torso towards him more and give him a sympathetic look. "Your people, of all the Covenant races, were the most grievously misled by the San'Shyuum, the False Prophets. If you look at it from an objective view, you can see that they have controlled and oppressed all cultural development, all natural societal evolution of your race. That does not excuse your actions, no, but it does mean that you are not wholly at fault."

"What really matters to me is that you have owned up to your mistakes, and are trying to fix them and make reparations for them," you finish. There's no argument he can make against that. You both know you're right. After the Sangheili went through the worst of their civil war, and the Arbiter and his Swords emerged victorious, they made meetings with Human government and diplomats to set up a cease-fire, alliance, and reparations. The Sangheili now supply help against the Covenant: resources mined by the very excavation beams they once used to glass planets, and manpower in the form of the multiple races of the Swords and the Unggoy, who joined the Sangheili-Human Alliance as a client race to the Sangheili.

The Arbiter turns to face you, and takes both your hands in his.

"(Y/N)," he starts seriously. "I had never thought I would meet a Human as honorable and kind as you. It warms my hearts to know that our attempts to atone for our sins is not in vain." He pauses, looks down briefly. "That my attempts to atone for my sins are not in vain."

"Thank you," he says, earnestly and genuinely.

"You're welcome." You smile warmly at him, and squeeze his hands again. "And can I just say how proud I am of you, that you try even when your attempts are so scorned?"

His eyes widen minutely, and he slowly and carefully, giving you enough time to object, draws you into his arms. ( [Sangheili Hugging](https://galway-bae.tumblr.com/post/611450769797988352/ive-been-thinking-about-1-swans-and-2-a-pair-of) )

He's mainly muscle and bone, but he's warm and comforting, and he smells of leather and faint smoke**. It's nice.

He releases you, and any tension or awkwardness that may have been between you is gone. And when he asks you if you want to hear more of his home, you happily accept. You spend hours together, comparing homelands and cultures, sharing stories, laughing. Eventually the Arbiter's interest is drawn back to the koi pond. More specifically, the insects flying around it.

"What are those?" He points with the hand that isn't holding yours.

"The little ones are called damselflies, and the big ones dragonflies," you inform him.

He looks to you in slight confusion. "What is a dragon?"

"It's a very big lizard, that's quadruped, with wings and a tail. Horns and spikes too, sometimes."

"Are they native to a specific colony?"

"Oh, no, they're actually fictional. Humans made them up hundreds of years ago," you tell him, amused at the slightly bewildered look he shoots you.

"Human fiction is fascinating. My people have stories and legends, passed down through the generations, that detail the accomplishments of the most impactful Sangheili. We have no fiction, apart he from the tales told to us by the False Prophets." His voice darkens with the end of his sentence, and you squeeze his hand.

"Then I'll just have to show you ours," you propose. "If you'd like, we could meet again and I could show you some Human movies?"

"I would like that," he assents.

"Great! I'll send you my work schedule, so we can find a time we're both free," you announce cheerfully. "Now, would you like to see the fruit trees?"

* * *

On the way back to your quarters, because the Arbiter insisted on escorting you, N'thito and Khova politely try act like they didn't hear any of your date today. Their warmer attitudes and more protective behavior towards you gives them away.

They find something interesting down the hall to look at when you have the Arbiter bend down so you can give him a kiss on the cheek, behind his mandibles, after he consents to it.

And if the Arbiter seeks out Sangheili known to have Human significant others to learn how to kiss with his mandibles, nobody says anything.

**Author's Note:**

> *Scuttlebutt = rumor; gossip  
> **I realize that authors describe people's scents in a romantic way, but I just want to point out: Arbiter smells like faint smoke because he was blown up a little. That is all. 
> 
> Peters: *exists and talks trash*  
> Reader: What the fuck did you say? Arby, hold my drink.  
> Arbiter: I got your drink babe, kick his ass.
> 
> I do not know how to describe an alien hugging like a swan, so please, for the love of whatever deity you may or may not worship, look at that glorious image galway-bae on tumblr has created
> 
> Also, I realize that I first said that the Arbiter and the Medic series would be a trilogy, but I just have so,,,many,,,,ideas?? And inspiration???? I did not expect this?????
> 
> So yeah, it's gonna be a longer series, I dunno how long. I have plans up to the end of Halo 5, which I am going to be changing because I don't like it. I may make more after that, make my own story off of the end of Halo 5, kinda like what people did for Doom, before Doom Eternal came out. We shall see how well the creative juices flow at that point.


End file.
